Wild Onyx Clownfish. Take 3

Better shot of the gigantea anemone with clowns under my Kessil light
fvSE26c.png
 
The clowns are still doing great. The gigantea anemone had to go through a 5 day cipro treatment and was put back in the tank two days ago. That is why it is bleached. The wild onyx clown has adapted well to captivity.
Yp0Hlqy.png
 
Why did you treat the anemone only for 5 days? I thought you should treat it for 7 days regardless how it looks.

It seems gigs are likely to expel their Zooxanthellae when sick and treated.
 
Why did you treat the anemone only for 5 days? I thought you should treat it for 7 days regardless how it looks.

It seems gigs are likely to expel their Zooxanthellae when sick and treated.

Mine wasn't a bad case so I went for 5 days. It only deflated once in DT and inflated back up. There was no deflation in QT for 5 days. The first and only deflation could have been due to me feeding the nem the day before deflation but I did not want to take my chances. The vendor I got it from treated the anemone for 3 days and held it for me for 2 weeks before I picked it up. My main concern was that the anemone could have developed immunity to antibiotic but 250mg of Cipro per 5 gallons (50mg per gallon) seems to to have worked well.
 
Last edited:
The issue with the duration is not the health condition of the anemone but to ensure you have killed all the bacteria. If you cut it short some of the bacteria may survive and become resistant. For that reason you should always use antibiotics for the full duration.

A 3 day treatment and then quarantine may be worse than no treatment.
 
The issue with the duration is not the health condition of the anemone but to ensure you have killed all the bacteria. If you cut it short some of the bacteria may survive and become resistant. For that reason you should always use antibiotics for the full duration.

It is well documented a 5 day treatment can be sufficient for a gigantea anemone. Just need to observe the subject anemone and use judgment on how to proceed.
 
The issue with the duration is not the health condition of the anemone but to ensure you have killed all the bacteria.

I actually disagree and view this as an understatement. The health condition matters a lot. There are some gigs that shouldn't be sold because no matter how many days of cipro you put them through they die within a very short period of time.
Although there's a good chance I maybe misreading your post because you may be emphisizing the length of treatment to kill the bacteria vs the importance of health. If that's the case, then my apologies and refer to my previous post regarding 5 day period.
 
Last edited:
I actually disagree and view this as an understatement. The health condition matters a lot. There are some gigs that shouldn't be sold because no matter how many days of cipro you put them through they die within a very short period of time.
Although there's a good chance I maybe misreading your post because you may be emphisizing the length of treatment to kill the bacteria vs the importance of health. If that's the case, then my apologies and refer to my previous post regarding 5 day period.

I meant no matter how good the anemone looks at any stage of the treatment, the full number of cipro doses has to be applied before the treatment is stopped.

Of course there are anemones that are beyond rescue even with cipro treatment. ,

It's actually a sad fact that for any gigantea that makes it to retail store about 10 died during collection, handling and shipping.
One thing that also needs to be remembered is that any gigantea taken from the wild means one less pair of wild clownfish.
Clownfish are not threatened by being caught themselves but by the depletion of their hosts.

Also, the demand for colored gigs has led to a significant over collection in the collection areas.

New pic of clowns from today under light.
69O7drg.png

Looking nice.
 
Last edited:
The clowns and the anemone are doing well. They will be moving to a slightly bigger tank in the afternoon. I may decide to keep the gig in the current tank for a few days before transferring it to the new tank.
9SyR2m4.png
 
The clowns and their anemone were transferred to the new tank last night. i transferred everything over including live rock and water. The only thing that's changed is water volume. I went from a 35 gal cube to a 42 gallon rectangle. sump and equipment are all the same.
You can see the gig is getting "dirty" all around the oral disc meaning it's going to color up. It's my understanding that the anemone is regenerating zoox. I just hope that having the gig sit in a 10 gallon tote for 3 hours in between transfer did not cause set back in post-treatment recovery.
Z6T3qwq.png
 
Two tanks are no stress - take care of 30 tanks, half of them for raising larva or clownfish babies and you really know what stress is.
 
Everyone is settling in just fine in the new tank. Wasn't sure how the gig anemone was going to act but it's doing ok. Pic taken under white light only (no blue)
vJC8cCF.png
 
Back
Top